At a home for women and children with HIVIAIDS in South Africa. Photo ©Andrew Petkun

Africa Action Special Report 2001 hree of the oldest Africa advocacy groups in the United States merged in 2001 to become a T new organization-AFRICA ACTION-working fo r economic, political, and social justice throughout the African continent.

In 1953, the American Committee on Africa (ACOA) was fo unded in New York by a group ofblack and white civil rights activists who had organized support for the h istoric Defiance Campaign in South Africa at the request of liberation movement leader Walter Sisulu. ACOA, together with The Africa Fund, founded in 1966, provided key support for independence movements through out Africa and built networks of U.S .-based advocates th at became crucial participants in the anti-apartheid struggle.

The Africa Policy Information Center (APIC), founded in Washington in 1978, later pioneered the use of new information and communication technology to support advocacy work on Africa. The merger of these three groups in 2001 marries their complementary strengths: people, organized at the local level, and information, the foundation for effective action. From 1953 to 2001 ... Africa Action celebrates the publication of I Will Go Next year will mark a half-century since the founding of Singing, George Houser's new book on Walter Sisulu . Top, from left: Sa lih Booker, executive director of Africa Action; Jennifer Davis, former director of ACOA!The Africa Action's oldest parent organization. The struggle Africa Fund; Sheila Sisulu, South African ambassador to the United States and today is no longer against colonialism and South African Walter Sisulu 's daughter-in-law; and George Houser, founding director of ACOA/ apartheid, but against global apartheid-the worldwide The Africa Fund . Below, from left: Dumisani Kumalo, former projects director of The Africa Fund and currently South African ambassador to the United Nations; system of entrenched inequalities and racism that keeps Salih Booker; and Bob Browne, a member of the ACOA founding group. Africa poor. Global issues, from the AIDS pandemic to the failure of peacekeeping to the burden of unpayable In partnership with activists throughout the United States foreign debt, have their most devastating consequences and with civil society organizations in Africa, we're work­ in Africa. These challenges must be addressed in solidar­ ing to change U.S . foreign policy and the policies of ity with Africans, if they are not to overwhelm the conti­ international institutions in order to support African nent and the world. struggles for peace and development. upport for Africa is as urgent today as it was during activists. We're stepping up our campaign for Africa's the anticolonial and anti-apartheid struggles­ Right to Health, and increasing our media presence. Our Sin many ways, even more so. The creation of own information network is expanding rapidly and Africa Action promises to strengthen that support in the providing resources for local organizers across the coun­ years ahead, and I want to personally thank everyone who try and in Africa. helped make this merger possible. The support of thousands of individuals in the U.S. and In the aftermath of September 11, we must draw the abroad enables us to carry forward this work. Our deep­ critical connections between lives lost to intentional est gratitude goes to them. Institutional supporters play violent acts and lives lost to structural injustices­ a crucial r.ole in helping to build this growing organiza­ impoverishment and inequality-around the world. Now tion, and we greatly value those partnerships as well. more than ever, the struggles for human security, here and in Africa, must be joined. In the face of official We look forward to your continuing solidarity and sup­ disregard for Africa and Africans, we insist that all lives port. On behalf of the staff and board of directors of are valuable, and that the rights to security, health, and Africa Action, thank you! freedom from fear must apply to all. ~~ Thward this end, we're expanding our work with religious Salih Booker leaders, state and local elected officials, youth, and AIDS Executive Director

n the 1980s, widespread organized pressure in local U.S. communities finally forced Washington to I abandon its unholy alliance with the South African apartheid regime.

Thday, as then, local organization and local leadership by well-informed activists are key to forcing changes in national policies. Only when national groups work hand in hand with vigorous local networks will policy makers pay attention. This was the key finding of Weaving the Ties that Bind, a major research project by Imani Countess, former director of APIC, who spoke with activists and groups concerned with Africa across the United States. This work confirmed the enormous potential for greater mobi­ lization on Africa-potential that Africa Action is deter­ Above: African health professionals mined to develop. are struggling to save lives, but foreign creditors have forced African Two networks initiated during the anti-apartheid era­ governments to cut spending on health. Photo © Medecins Sans the Religious Action N_etwork and the State and Frontieres. Local Elected Officials Network-remain central to our work today. A Youth Action Network is in formation. All Left: Nkululeko Nxesi, director of South Africa's National Association three networks are currently engaged in the Africa's Right of People with AIDS, addressed the to Health campaign, launched by Africa Action on the press conference launching the eve of the U.N. General Assembly's special session on Africa's Right to Health campaign in New York. HD!I AIDS in June 2001. respond reveal a system of global apartheid in which Of the 3 million AIDS deaths worldwide in 2000, the right to health is largely determined by race, gen­ almost 2.5 million were in Africa. Life-prolonging drugs der, class and geography. have cut AIDS deaths in rich countries, but neither these treatments nor other resources to combat HIVI AIDS are To ensure that Africans get the resources they need to available to the vast majority. of people in Africa. The confront the AIDS pandemic and the wider health emer- spread of the pandemic and the world's failure to continued on back page ~~ Global Wea ~,~~ tor Global continued from front page Health! gency, Africa Action must be able to mobilize thou­ sands of activists to demand a major increase in the U.S. contribution to global AIDS funding. Other goals Africa's Right to Health of the campaign include the cancellation of Africa's """. \!"rica t>olil:~ .or~ foreign debt, equal access to treatment, and an end to IMF and World Bank policies that undermine Africa's public health care systems and allow the HIV virus to spread unchecked.

Africa Action helped organize a demonstration in New York during the U.N. special session on HIV/AIDS. calling on world leaders to cancel Africa's debt, increase global AIDS funding, and provide treatment access.

sing a highly successful media strategy, Africa Director Salih Booker spoke at universities and Action increased its visibility and reached vast churches, to elected officials, and to events such as U and diverse audiences through dozens of media the U.S.-Africa Sister Cities Conference and the outlets last year: African Refugee Network annual conference.

We placed opinion pieces calling for debt cancella­ The Nation featured "Global Apartheid," by Salih tion and increased AIDS funding in major dailies Booker and senior research fellow William Minter, such as the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, on its July 9 cover. The article was distributed at the Providence Journal, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; the U.N. special session on HIV I AIDS and has been and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. We also used syndi­ widely discussed. cated services to reach many smaller papers. In addition, Africa Action was quoted in influential The Foreign Policy Association's Great Decisions 2002 papers such as the New York Times and the Boston Globe. briefing book included our article on "AIDS in Africa." Salih was also a guest on the accompanying Africa Action staff were featured on radio and televi­ TV segment on AIDS in Africa that aired on U.S. sion programs reaching wide U.S. and international public television; the book and program together audiences, including those in Africa. Outlets included reach an estimated 400,000 people. National Public Radio, Pacifica Radio, Fox News, CNN International, the BBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Cor­ We are actively involved in the Foreign Policy in poration, the Voice of America, and South African and Focus project of the Institute for Policy Studies and Angolan radio and television-to name only a few. the Interhemispheric Resource Center. ork with the major media is essential, but it Our e-mail distribution list provides news and policy faces constraints, notably the low level of analysis to activists and educators in more than 75 coun­ W interest in Africa in most of the mainstream tries, including at least 30 countries in Africa. An esti­ press. That's why outreach through our own electronic, mated 13,000 people, more than two-thirds of them in radio, and print communication channels is critical to the United States, receive our information. Africa Action's effectiveness. The Africa Action web site (www.africaaction.org) is Using these networks, Africa Action provides information widely used and respected by educators and activists. directly and at low cost to Africa advocates around the Information-rich, it offers an archive of policy and advo­ world, including those in Africa. At the same time, we cacy documents along with links to other sources on enable Africans to reach audiences in other countries with every African country. It's one of the most referenced their perspectives on African realities. Africa sites on Google and Yahoo, and can be reached via links from many other sites. Visitors have increased Africa Action director Salih Booker hosts steadily, with more than 1.1 million page views in 2001, WPFW's African World, up from 950,000 the year before. an hour of news and discussion on events in Africa and the diaspora. Africa Action is exploring new ways to use on-line Salih discussed the IMF communications to foster advocacy. In 2000, we and World Bank role in collaborated with the U.N. Economic Commission on Africa with Kenyan Njoki Njehu, director of Africa to co-sponsor an electronic roundtable that brought 50 Years Is Enough, an 500 people together in a structured on-line discussion of international network international policies affecting Africa. Africa Action for global economic justice. Photo © Rick published extracts from the roundtable proceedings in 2001, Reinhard. along with reflections on lessons learned.

he year 2001 provided two important forums for global networking on African issues. Africa T Action staff were active participants in both, spreading our message and making new contacts for Africa advocacy.

At the United Nations General Assembly Special Ses­ sion on HIV!AIDS, held in New York in June, Africa Action staff worked closely with youth attending the conference and related demonstrations. As a result, young Zackie Achmat, head of the Treatment Action Campaign, speaking at a joint · people from 26 countries shared ideas on organizing strat­ press conference with Africa Action at the U.N . World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. egies and issued a joint statement emphasizing the concerns of youth about HIVI AIDS. With a publicity cam­ paign timed to coincide with the U.N. special session, Durban, South Africa, and participated in the nongov­ we raised awareness of the global apartheid that perpetu­ ernmental portion of the event. We joined with South ates the AIDS pandemic. Africa's Treatment Action Campaign and other groups in a press conference focusing on the failure to address the Africa Action strongly supported the United Nations AIDS pandemic as a contemporary manifestation of World Conference Against Racism, held in August in international racism.

' Financial Results 2001 Major Donors Board of Directors

Income Ford Foundation Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, President Grants $296,700 Carnegie Corporation of New York Adwoa Dunn-Mouton, Vice President Boehm Foundation Marvin Rich, Treasurer Contributions 290,213 Carolyn Long, Secretary Normandie Foundation Miscellaneous 4,909 Elizabeth Calvin Samuel Rubin Foundation Interest 1-1,296 Jim Cason Academy for Educational Development Fantu Cheru TOTAL $603,118 Theodore A. Von der Ahe, Jr. Trust Cecelie Counts Joseph Rosen Foundation James Early Bob Edgar Expenses Communitas Charitable Trust Prexy Nesbitt Program $558,622 . USA for Africa Andrew Norman Administration 148,070 Orisha Foundation Rev. Dr. Franklyn Richardson Merger 67,247 Barbara & Victor Ulmer Fund of Venita Vinson the Agape Foundation Canon Frederick B. Williams Fundraising 28,116 27 congregations of the TOTAL $802,055 Religious Action Network Above: The Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, president of General Board of Global Ministries, the Africa Action Board of Directors and former United Methodist Church chief of staff to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Balances Women's Division, Board of Global Ministries, Current assets $375,887 United Methodist Church Main office: Current liabilities 23,097 United Methodist Office for the United Nations 110 Maryland Avenue, NE Fund balance $352,790 Office of Corporate Witness, Suite 508 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Washington, DC 20002 Lutheran Office for World Community (202) 546-7961 Results for 2001 are preliminary and AFSCME E-mail: [email protected] unaudited, and include expenses from UNITE Local 23-25 foundation grants received in 2000. Audited CWA Local 1180 New York field office: accounts for 2000 are available on request. Amnesty International Canaan Baptist Church 132 West 116 Street New York, NY 10026 (212) 531-2468